On July 28, an independent candidate for U.S. House filed a federal lawsuit against Illinois’ 5% (of the last vote cast) petition requirement for that office. Illinois law says that in years after redistricting, such as 1982, 1992, 2002, etc., the number of signatures for an independent for U.S. House is exactly 5,000 signatures. But in all other election years, it is 5% of the last vote cast, which can be as high as 13,000 signatures.

The plaintiff is Allan Stevo, running in the 10th district. He submitted approximately 7,150 signatures, but he was challenged. The law requires him to submit 10,111. He will submit evidence showing that in years in which the requirement is only 5,000 signatures, the ballot is never crowded. The 5,000-signature requirement for years after redistricting has been in effect starting with 1982, and when one looks at the record for 1982, 1992, and 2002, one finds that there were no U.S. House races in Illinois with more than three candidates on the ballot (except that there was one race with four candidates). The case is Stevo v Illinois State Board of Elections, U.S. District Court, Central District, no. 08-3162.

On July 28, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously removed Herb Hoffman from the November ballot. He is an independent candidate for U.S. Senate. Maine will now be one of eight states with no one on the ballot for U.S. Senate except for the Republican and Democratic nominees.

Hoffman needed 4,000 signatures. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that all the signatures on sheets circulated by Hoffman himself should be invalidated, leaving him with only 3,929 valid signatures. It was known that three particular signers had signed the petitions (that were witnessed by Hoffman himself) while he was not actually watching the signature-gathering process. The controversy was whether to delete just those three signatures, or whether to invalidate all three entire sheets. The decision does not discuss the philosophy behind the law; it just says that since his statement that he had witnessed all the signatures gathered on those sheets was false, therefore none of his work should be counted. Here is the opinion.

On July 24, several groups that conduct voter registration drives filed a lawsuit against New Mexico restrictions. A 2005 New Mexico law made it a crime for someone to fail to turn in a completed registration form within 48 hours after it comes into his or her possession. The 2005 law also limits groups that register voters to only 50 voter registration blank forms. The lawsuit was filed by the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Federation of Women’s Clubs Overseas, New Mexico Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, and the Southwest Organizing Project. The case is American Assn. of People with Disablilities v Herrera, state court, Bernalillo County, cv 2008-07673.

Usually, laws that inhibit voter registration groups are passed by Republican state legislatures. The New Mexico law is unusual because it was passed by a Democratic-controlled state legislature, and signed by a Democratic Governor, Bill Richardson.